Study: Road Work Lags Revenue From Gas Taxes In County

August 3, 1986|By Mark Andrews of The Sentinel Staff

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS — Seminole County is the only county in the metropolitan Orlando area in which the state and federal governments spent less on road construction than was collected in gas taxes over the past five years.

But Commissioner Sandra Glenn, a member of a regional transportation planning panel, said she does not think the county is being shortchanged because other state and federal dollars are at work here.

A report prepared by the Florida Department of Transportation for the Metropolitan Planning Organization shows that more than $51 million in state and federal gas taxes were collected in Seminole between 1980 and 1985, while about $47.3 million was spent on road construction.

That works out to a 92 percent return for Seminole, versus returns of 121 percent for Osceola County and 112 percent for Orange County. In the tri- county area, 109 percent of the money collected in gas taxes was returned in the form of construction dollars.

In only two out of the last five years did Seminole receive more than its motorists gave. In fiscal year 1983, spending exceeded collections by $2.8 million for a 128 percent return and in fiscal 1985 spending was $1.2 million -- or 8 percent -- higher than collections.

The county's worst year for transportation spending during the 5-year period came in fiscal 1981 when only 56 percent of the gas tax money collected in Seminole returned in the form of road spending.

Glenn said Friday that these figures do not paint a true picture of total state and federal spending for road projects in the county.

For example, spending of gas tax dollars does not reflect work the federal government has done on Interstate 4 or the proposed I-4 overpass at Center Street in Altamonte Springs and the new interchange at Lake Mary Boulevard, she said. Other work on U.S. Highway 17-92 also comes under a different category of spending.

In addition, the state has contributed $500,000 for studying the alignment of the proposed county beltway -- with more dollars expected for that project later. It contributed about $1 million toward the purchase of abandoned railroad right-of-way in the western part of the county.

''The state is being as fair to us as they can be,'' she said. ''We're doing about as well as we're going to.''

The study was done at the request of Orange County Commissioner Lou Treadway, chairman of the planning organization.